


Oddities

by Ailette



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Imported, M/M, Nino comes back from the US
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-04
Updated: 2010-07-04
Packaged: 2018-06-05 11:38:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6703180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ailette/pseuds/Ailette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's odd, how home somehow home doesn't feel like home when he comes back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Oddities

**Author's Note:**

> Beta: eufry ♥  
> A/N: Obligatory 'Nino returns from America' fic. This was the second fic I wrote for Ohmiya, but somehow I'm confusing myself with all the stuff that has piled up on my HD.   
> (Originally posted at http://ailette.livejournal.com/55807.html)

_ Odd _ . He knew he should be feeling all kinds of things; excitement, exhaustion, hope, fear, happiness – anything would do, really. But all he could think as he was looking around the overcrowded airport was that it was _odd_. Seeing Japanese signs and posters everywhere again, having his manager walk in front of him as she was talking about Nino’s next interview like he hadn’t just come back from a three month job thousands of kilometres away, hearing the unclear yet distinctively familiar murmur of voices that were speaking a language he understood perfectly and yes, even the air felt different. But it didn’t feel like he’d come back home again at all.

It was _odd_.

He turned his head a bit to get a better look at the people waiting in the entrance hall as they passed the checking point, but he couldn’t find any familiar faces at first glance. Frowning slightly, he scanned the crowd again. He didn’t stop until he heard his manager sigh loudly.

“I am actually capable of doing my job, you know. You told me that you didn’t want anyone to know that you’d come back a few days early, so there isn’t going to be any press awaiting you here. There’s no way your arrival could have been leaked when only the boss and me know about it,” she said, clearly annoyed.

He hadn’t been looking for the press at all. In all honesty, the idea hadn’t even occurred to him yet that there might be enough interest in him after shooting a Clint Eastwood movie to have paparazzi pop up at the airport. He didn’t really feel like explaining himself, though, and just nodded absently instead.

“Right.”

The woman shook her head as she grabbed Nino’s luggage right out of his hands to store it in the waiting car’s trunk. She seemed stressed, Nino thought, and found his thoughts drifting back to the people he’d been watching out for inevitably. Of course, he chided himself, Arashi had to be busy, even with one member missing. Maybe even more so.

Another _odd_ thing. To think of Arashi like he wasn’t a part of them. It only intensified the unnerving tugging at his chest. He didn’t want to think about it. He most certainly didn’t want to think about the fact that even though he really had, in fact, told the manager to keep quiet, he had hoped to find his band mates waiting for him.

He’d sat in the plane, staring out at the clouds as he thought about Aiba, how he would probably run up to him, tears in his eyes and a stupid grin on his face as he knocked all the breath out of Nino with his wild hug. He found himself smiling when he imagined Jun muttering something about ‘idiots’ and whacking Aiba lightly on the shoulder before being enveloped in a similar breathtaking hug by said idiot, probably able to break away but happy to stay where he was. Sho would be slower in his approach, trying very hard to look collected before his hand found its way into Nino’s unusually short hair to ruffle it and smile fondly at him. ‘You’ll have to grow it out again. What kind of idol would you be with a hairstyle like that?’

And Ohno… His mind had gone blank with the thought of their leader. It went as far as to show him the older man smiling at him, but he couldn’t for the life of him predict what Ohno would do. It was fine, though. One of the things he liked the most about Ohno was the fact that he was completely unpredictable at times, even for Nino.

It had been childish to envision such a sappy reunion, he knew. It was even more childish to believe that his friends would even know about his premature return just because he secretly wanted them to. Life didn’t work like that. Their manager was capable, but even she wasn’t able to read Nino’s mind and then make the rest of Arashi magically show up. It wasn’t her job, either. Her job was to collect Nino, to inform him of his immediate schedule and to drop him off at his apartment before returning to the agency like she’d only been on a quick errand.

And she did her job very efficiently, Nino thought as he closed the front door behind him to breathe in the stale air of his unaired home. He’d done the responsible thing, he thought and sluggishly dropped his bag in a corner of his bedroom, quickly discarding the clothes he’d worn during the flight and throwing his cap on his unusually tidy desk. It hadn’t been _that_ long, but his shirt felt kind of disgusting. Slipping into an old jersey and the t-shirt that had lain on top of the pile of things he’d brought back with him, he plopped down on the bed. Feeling exhausted, he only grabbed the duvet to sloppily throw it over himself and shifted his head so he could actually breathe with his nose buried in the pillows.

After a long flight like this, he would, of course, be tired and in no mood to see anyone. But at the very least Aiba would be disappointed if he’d greet them with anything less than overflowing enthusiasm; so, yes. He’d done the responsible thing by not letting anyone know. He snuggled deeper into the bedding and let out a sigh.

Now he could catch up on much needed sleep and appear bright and early in their green room tomorrow, surprising them there. It was the perfect plan, he decided, and closed his eyes to wait for sleep to claim him.

After 38 minutes, countless turns and shuffles of the duvet later, he finally admitted defeat. His mind was still reeling with all kinds of thoughts; questions about the next few days and things that had happened over the past three months. With a heartfelt groan he got out of his slightly too warm cocoon again to trot into the living room, switch on the television and settle down on the couch instead.

He felt like he should drop on the spot and sleep for the next three days at least, but again, it was _odd_. He couldn’t even keep his eyes closed properly; opening them every few seconds just to check that he really was back in his own bedroom. If there was one thing he could very well do without, it was waking up to the open window in his hotel only to realize that he’d been dreaming of his seemingly unreachable home. Again.

He wrapped the woolen blanket lying at the end of the couch around himself, beginning to idly switch channels in search of something he could leave on that would lull him to sleep. He found some children’s anime that looked suspiciously like Pokémon but seemed to be something else and left it on for a few minutes before he eventually got too annoyed with the high pitched voice of who appeared to be the main female character and switched channels again.

A grin spread on his face and he let the remote drop down on the small table in front of him. It was _them_. Nino didn’t know which program this was, but he was content when he saw Ohno getting scolded by Sho for not paying any attention whatsoever to the ‘nice lady’ interviewing them. Nino snickered, because Sho had to have forgotten that ‘nice lady’s’ name if he referred to her like that. He let his head drop back against the couch cushion and smiled contently at the screen, biting back a yawn. It felt just a little bit more like home again as he listened to Jun sharing an anecdote on the filming of Hana Yori Dango and Aiba kind of ruining it by starting to laugh before it was time to. He had to have heard it before, Nino thought and blinked tiredly at the bright screen. The familiar sounds of ‘WISH’ had him close them entirely. Humming along a bit at first, he fell silent after the first few notes; just listening. It sounded great, like always.

He opened his eyes again.

The moves were in perfect sync, nothing giving even the slightest hint of something not being as it should be. Like the fact that there was one person missing from that perfect harmony.

He was surprised when he felt something wet slide down his cheek and sluggishly brought his hand up to see what it was even when he felt his whole body shudder with a loud sob. He was crying, he realized. He was crying because Arashi were right there, in front of his eyes, being _Arashi_ \- with only four people.

Another sob and he felt stupid when he curled in on himself, pressing his hands to his ears so he wouldn’t have to hear the song anymore. It was pathetic to cry over this, he himself had chosen to take on the job that would take him so far away from them and he had known what might happen when he left for such a long time. All assurances of ‘Arashi is five people’ and ‘We’ll miss you’ and ‘Come back soon, it’s just not the same without you’ aside, of course they had to keep on going. And of course they would be just as fine without him and tomorrow, tomorrow it wouldn’t matter anymore because he’d go back and everything would be like it was supposed to be again. But that was only tomorrow. Right now he couldn’t stop the tears from spilling from his eyes and into the soft material of the blanket as he realized that he had missed out on so much and—

A loud knock on the door jolted him from his thoughts. He didn’t want to answer. Not now. It couldn’t be anyone important anyway. Either his manager had come back to give him things to look over before tomorrow or it would be one of his neighbours to complain about God only knew what. He didn’t want to deal with anyone, not right now.

But the knocking didn’t let up, instead finding a steady rhythm to repeat itself over and over again. Finally, Nino lost it.

“Alright! I’m coming, goddammit!” he bellowed at the door and nearly tripped over his own feet as he tried to untangle himself from the blanket. Angrily wiping his eyes and not caring in the slightest that he had to look like hell warmed over with his eyes an angry red he stomped over and yanked the door open.

His eyes widened as he stared at the man calmly standing in front of him, like he hadn’t just almost broken down the door with his insistent knocking.

“Oh-chan,” Nino breathed out in amazement before his thoughts halfway caught up to him and he turned back to throw a look at the television in confusion. “But you were just - how are – not working?”

It was complete and utter nonsense and Nino felt the tears sting in the corner of his eyes again at his own inability to just _think_ for a moment to get his head to clear up a little bit when Ohno finally said something.

“We taped that last week,” he explained calmly, miraculously knowing what Nino had meant to ask even when the younger man himself hadn’t been quite sure.

Nino didn’t know what to say. He wanted to ask why Ohno was here, how he knew that Nino was back, why he looked so freaking composed when Nino was about to break down and just bawl his eyes out already, how he could always understand Nino even when he himself didn’t, why his hair looked like something had taken a nap in there when the last time Nino had seen it it was still too short to properly tangle his fingers in it, where everyone else was and what they were doing, if he could just-

He was startled again when Ohno stepped in, softly letting the door fall back into its lock behind him as he enveloped Nino’s shuddering form in a warm embrace.

“Welcome back home,” he murmured and Nino brought his own arms around Ohno’s form to clutch at the jacket he was wearing.

It was _odd_ , how Ohno could make everything clear with just his presence and one sentence that really shouldn’t be so significant. It was _odd_ , how the world seemed to snap back into place after three months of everything being upside down.

It was odd, how it was the most normal thing in the world.

“I’m back.”


End file.
